Recent Stories with tag punk

It's a drizzly Friday night, April 16, and Exene Cervenka--singer for L.A. punk icons X, solo performer, artist, and poet--is playing an acoustic set at the Queen Anne Easy Street Records to an excited crowd.

The store aisles are jammed with everyone from eight-year-olds to AARP-eligible warhorse punks, and they all devour Cervenka's mostly new material from her first solo record proper in sixteen years, Somewhere Gone. She sings her songs in a plaintive voice that sounds like an Appalachian mountain woman, and provides ragged-but-right accompaniment to herself on acoustic guitar. With her music and offhandedly humorous between-song anecdotes bolstered by the genial vibe (and the smuggled-in cans of Rainier circulating amongst audience members), one of punk rock's most influential and enduring figures has the whole room eating out of her hand.

Cervenka finishes her set and begins meeting, greeting, and signing autographs for fans. Much love is thrown her way, and she seems to genuinely cherish and appreciate it. She's done this free in-store for them on her dime, and she'll continue touring independent record stores in the same gypsy fashion for the next several days to promote National Record Store Day and independent music merchants in general. The phrase "changed my life" is uttered more than once by people in the line, and I find out from Cervenka's assistant Andrea that one admirer--a tall, sleepy-eyed guy in a baseball cap--plans on having the singer design a tattoo for him.

I bump into Exene's human canvas near the doorway as he smokes a cigarette outside. He's stoked, he tells me, despite the fact that he's nursing four broken ribs and has yet to feel the morphine intended to block his pain. "Saved damn near my whole arm for this," he says as he hooks one hand underneath his T-shirt sleeve to show me the bare space intended for the body art. "I'm gonna get Rick Nielsen and Bun E. Carlos to do the other arm," he adds, beaming.

Once the crowd drifts away Exene pulls out paper and a Sharpie and begins sketching an elaborate pattern that looks like punked-up Maori adornment. She hands the drawing to her fan/tattoo canvas upon completion and imparts pointers on how to have the tattoo artist finish the work. Then she emerges from behind the counter. We can do the interview in the back, she tells me as we head to the store's rear and past the "Employees Only" door....

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The Stranglers were always the odd ducks of the first wave of 1970's British punk. Older and smarter than most of their peers, their songs were anchored more in roller-rink keyboards than slashing guitars, and their lyrics emphasized lascivious humor and personal observation over the socio-political shouting of the Sex Pistols and the Clash.

Hugh Cornwell, The Stranglers' lead singer and guitarist from the band's early-seventies inception to 1990, was--in many ways--the face of the band. His distinctive English monotone of a voice and his biting lyrics gave the band its personality, and his restlessness helped pull the band away from spitting pub rock into jazz and exotic keyboard pop (to whit: the magical 1981 British hit, "Golden Brown," the most gorgeous waltz about smack that you'll ever hear). Once Cornwell left The Stranglers' ranks the band remained serviceable, but never quite seemed to find a personality of its own.

Both band and original frontman are doing fine apart though, thanks. The Stranglers continue to record and tour throughout England (their latest long-player Suite XIV contains some lovely pop songs like "She's Slipping Away"), and Cornwell's etched out a low-key but rewarding career solo. His new longplayer Hooverdam (available for free download on the singer's official website) is a likeably rough-around-the-edges collection of tunes largely free of the Stranglers' arty tendencies. All erstwhile punk-rock figures should mature so gracefully.

Tickets ($15 on TicketWeb) for Cornwell's set at the Tractor Tavern Sunday night are still available, and it promises to be a treat. The scruffy rockabilly sound of much of Hooverdam should fit nicely in the environs of a hotbed of roots music like the Tractor, and he reputedly divides his current sets democratically between Stranglers classics (with an emphasis on that classic punk/new wave 1977 opus, Rattus Norwegicus) and newer solo material, with a bare-bones guitar/bass/drums power trio configuration that cuts away all frills and boils old and new tunes alike down to their sinews. No more heroes, my eye. 

My New Year's resolution was to see 50 shows in 2009. I thought this was reasonable for a person with a job that requires me to get up at 6 a.m. Yet, like most people, I did not fulfill my New Year's resolution. I got 39 nights of rock and roll in with 122 bands. Not too shabby, but I'll try to do better in 2010. My five favorites are recounted for you below.

#5. Classics of Love, Mike Park, Dateless, The Damage Done - The Grn Strp House - 3/14/09

As someone who discovered punk rock in the early nineties, it makes sense that Operation Ivy is one of my favorite bands. The Bay Area ska/punk band was an influence to a whole decade of punks and made Lookout Records famous well before Green Day came around. When singer Jesse Michaels disappeared after their first record, punk rock hearts were crushed everywhere. He had a short comeback with Big Rig and then got back into the swing of things with reggae/punk band Common Rider. His new project Classics of Love wanders back into straight punk songs.

I got to see them with Skankin' Pickle and Asian Man Records mastermind Mike Park as well as two local groups in a small punk house near the freeway. There is absolutely no better situation than a hundred and fifty or so people crammed into the living room, their breath condensing on the walls, waiting for their hero to take the stage so they can rock the hell out. When Park started playing "The Crowd" by Op IV and Michaels joined him on vocals, it was like it was 1989 all over again and we were ready to take on the world. When Classics of Love played, we did, in fact, rock the hell out.

#4. Cumulus Festival - Chop Suey/King Cobra/Vera Project - 1/23/09 to 1/25/09

The second I heard about the Cumulus Festival, I bought a three-day pass. While three days of (mostly) instrumental music might not be everyone's cup of tea, I was super excited. Seattle is the perfect place to foster this genre of music. With extraordinarily talented musicians and long, dreary winters, we are primed to create a musical revolution. The wide variety of bands at the show underscores the depth of talent we have here and the wide variation that is prevalent in the instrumental music genre.

I spent several hours that weekend riding on emotional crescendos and decrescendos, shaking my head at ridiculous musicianship, basking in various light shows, and no small amount of rocking out. I discovered a ton of new and awesome bands. I shared a unique experience with a couple hundred like-minded people. I am very much looking forward to Cumulus Festival 2010.

#3. Grand Hallway + Seattle Rock Orchestra, The Maldives - Fremont Abbey - 9/17/09

There are bands that simply break your heart with their beauty. Grand Hallway and The Maldives are two of those bands and they played together on the same night. The Fremont Abbey has amazing acoustics for orchestral pop and alt-country ballads. I wallowed around in the sorrow and beauty and reverb and melodies. I'm man enough to admit I cried a little bit during "Sirens," the saddest Grand Hallway song ever. It was a particularly emotional night for me anyways, but two beautifully melancholy bands put it over the edge. I'll remember this show for quite some time.

#2. Sunny Day Real Estate, The Jealous Sound - Paramount - 10/16/09

Though I discovered punk in the early nineties, I had started to grow up and get all emo by about 1995. It was fortunate, then, that Sunny Day Real Estate released their first record the year before. I played that record so much that I even memorized the gaps between the songs. When the second record came out, I did the same and made up my own lyrics since the liner notes didn't include them. When I went away to college, however, Sunny Day Real Estate and I went on separate paths.

At the Paramount, hundreds of people got to share in the heartfelt reunion of an influential Seattle band. Sunny Day sounded amazing. Their songs were tightened up on a month of touring and they were just as emotional and real as ever. No giant light shows or ridiculous theatrics, just them and us in a huge concert venue. It was a great finale. Meanwhile, the new song they debuted made us think that their story might not be over yet. We'll see what 2010 brings....

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